Atoga Systems' New OAR 5 Brings to Light High-Margin Revenue Opportunities for Metro Service Providers.

Business Editors/Technology Writers

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 15, 2001

Optical Application Router 5 is First Solution to Use Tunable Lasers

for On-demand Bandwidth Provisioning and Dynamic Optical Scaling

Atoga Systems, a developer of intelligent Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) solutions, today announced the availability of its first product, Optical Application Router 5 (OAR 5), the market's first device to use tunable lasers to enable on-demand bandwidth provisioning and dynamic optical scaling. The OAR 5 will help metropolitan service providers attract new customers by introducing per-user and per-application service-level agreements (SLAs), pursue higher-margin revenue opportunities with the introduction of metered application services and reduce operational costs by provisioning data and voice services across optical networks more efficiently and simply.

OAR 5 is in beta tests with several service providers. General availability is scheduled for March 2001.

"Atoga is bringing a new dimension to metro networking with this new platform," said Scott Clavenna, president of PointEast Research in Cambridge, Mass. "Using tunable wavelength selection to enable on-demand bandwidth dilation is a true innovation in intelligent bandwidth management. This is a visionary approach to a pressing service-provider need."

The integrated Atoga solution, supporting both packet and Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) voice services, will move service providers closer to their goal of becoming one-stop shops for broadband, Internet Protocol (IP) services such as video on demand, content hosting, data mirroring, remote backup and other hosted, business-critical applications.

"A business customer in most cases isn't willing to pay the premium for a dedicated OC-12 connection, for example, if an OC-3 link will suffice for most of the month. There are moments, though, when that business customer needs that additional bandwidth," said Cuneyt Ozveren, co-founder and chief executive officer of Atoga Systems. "Traditionally, metro service providers have been unable to satisfy this customer need because true on-demand bandwidth provisioning has been complex, labor intensive and extremely time consuming. But by enabling metered application services using per-user, per-application SLAs coupled with optical scaling using tunable lasers, Atoga's OAR 5 frees service providers to pursue these high-margin, revenue-generating opportunities."

About OAR 5

To date, carriers have had to endure a complex process of manually configuring three separate network layers - IP, Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) and WDM - to provision services because industry standards for communications among the Open System Interconnection (OSI) stack layers have not been defined. OAR 5, based on Atoga's FastApp(TM) network architecture, eliminates the complexities because provisioning information flows freely among the tightly-integrated IP, SONET and WDM layers in this single platform.

The Atoga solution's tunable lasers enable service providers to create multiple logical topologies in a physical ring. In this way, the OAR 5's "tunability" delivers instant scalability and enables more efficient use of network resources. Also, the OAR 5's tunable lasers enable flexible re-provisioning of metropolitan rings without expensive truck rolls.

AppDirector, the OAR 5's network-management software, presents an intuitive graphical interface that makes it simple for service providers to dynamically manage bandwidth based on the needs of applications at any given moment. Provisioning information, entered once, is distributed throughout the network, so that traffic flows can be classified, policed and metered. AppDirector's Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) based repository of network policies, customer SLAs and usage statistics can easily tie into service providers' business systems such as third-party billing and mediation packages.

The OAR 5, a fully redundant system, supports 5 Gbps of switching capacity and can be configured with a 16-port 10/100 Base TX or FX interface card or a two-port Gigabit Ethernet SX interface card. TDM services are available via a one-port channelized DS3 interface. The OAR 5 can be deployed in a variety of network topologies including ring, mesh and point-to-point. The new Atoga solution is based on industry-standard routing protocols to enhance interoperability. Up to seven OAR 5 systems fit in a standard, seven-foot telco rack.

About Atoga

Atoga Systems designs, develops and manufactures intelligent, integrated WDM platforms for the optical Internet. Atoga's solutions for the metro network allow service providers to increase service velocity through intelligent and simplified provisioning of applications and services. Atoga's integrated optical platforms enable service providers to broaden service offerings, increase the aggregate performance of their network infrastructure and radically reduce the total cost of operation. Atoga was founded in December 1999 and is located in Fremont, California. Visit http://www.atoga.com.

Note to Editors: FastApp is a trademark of Atoga Systems Inc.